Striscia la notizia (pronounced [ˈstriʃʃa la noˈtittsja]) is an Italian satirical television program on the Mediaset-controlled Canale 5. Founded in 1988, it is meant to be a parody of the daily news, which airs right before the program, but Striscia also satirizes government corruption and exposes scams with the help of local reporters who are also comedians. The program is directed and produced by Antonio Ricci and is hosted by two major comedians. Usually Ezio Greggio (who co-founded the show with Gianfranco D'Angelo) is assisted by another comedian (such as Enzo Iacchetti or Michelle Hunziker) for the winter season, after which there is a change of guard with the two comedians Ficarra & Picone.

The name of the show literally translates in English as "the news slither". The polysemic term striscia (English: strip) refers to a cartoon strip (noun) while its conjugationstrisciare is a verb which means "to crawl" or "to slither", thus allegorically referring to a worm or snake which slithers and bores underground digging holes and exposing "cheats".

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The Gabibbo, an Italian cultural icon, acts as the mascot and is the soul of the show. Gabibbo is a caricature of an Italian layman, a low-income worker who lives near the docks of Genoa. Always loud, braggart but pungent in his naive but straightforward ways, he butts in everywhere he sees new friends to chat to with a childlike enthusiasm always running after the veline, the show's two dancing showgirls. He is, in some ways, like the Cockney type often seen in British comedies.

The term velina (English: tissue paper) is a figurative term in Italian journalism which refers to government-issued propagated news. It is a parody of the news industry during the Fascist era under the Mussolini where the government controlled and heavily censored all news reports and papers.

Within Striscia, the veline are two young women in their early twenties (one blonde, the other brunette) who come on stage to hand the "news anchors" their news and perform short dances called stacchetti, always finishing up on the news anchors' desk.

The names of the veline for each season of Striscia are announced after a long beauty pageant during the summer. The program is called Veline. A similar program, "Velone" (which means "big veline"), is a contest for women in their 60s (although some are nearly 100)[citation needed]. As in "Veline," the women dance and perform in brief sketches.
The word velina has become a synonym for television presenters's assistant. In 2012 also velinismo [English: Velinism] (to become famous for passiveness and inconclusiveness) became an entry in the Zingarelli dictionary.

The Tapiro d'Oro (Golden Tapir), a small golden statue, is a special "prize" delivered to big celebrities or politicians who have been humiliated or defeated. Although many personalities take it in front of the cameras in the hope of getting attention for themselves, others run away and Valerio Staffelli, a special correspondent for the show, has to run after them until they finally take it. Some even react aggressively. Rai Uno Director Fabrizio Del Noce, cornered by Staffelli, banged his microphone on the reporter's face, breaking Staffelli's nose.